


Wanting is Better than Having

by CassieIngaben



Category: Eroica Yori Ai o Komete | From Eroica with Love
Genre: Anti-Valentine, M/M, Unrequited Love, Vignette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-26
Updated: 2021-02-26
Packaged: 2021-03-17 13:15:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 814
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29717736
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CassieIngaben/pseuds/CassieIngaben
Summary: "There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it." –Oscar Wilde
Relationships: Klaus von dem Eberbach/Dorian Red Gloria
Comments: 9
Kudos: 6





	Wanting is Better than Having

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Kadorienne](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kadorienne/gifts).



Dorian sighed and peeked at the glowing display of the alarm clock by the bed. The ugly red digits spelt their stocky version of 22:13. Good God. Wham, bam, thank you man, and the human tank was already asleep—until he woke up at five in the bloody morning, disgustingly eager to gallop around the god-forsaken woods surrounding his sullen Schloss. Well, never let it be said that the Earl of Gloria had gone to sleep before midnight at least! Dorian slipped out of the white cotton sheets, grabbed the starched dressing gown Klaus insisted on issuing him, and headed for the Schloss's frigid library.

It took a while, but eventually Dorian found something readable. Or rather, watchable. The Kunstmuseum had done a thorough job when cataloguing the von dem Eberbach collection—they had even cross-referenced other works by the foremost painters in the lot, which mostly meant Johann Krücke. The artist had specialised in men, be they forceful warriors with cruel faces, or softer, younger things. Opposite an excellent reproduction of Krücke's _The Man in Purple_ , the book sported the painter's masterpiece, _The Death of Hyacinthos,_ in all its glory. The quality of the _The Death of Hyacinthos_ reproduction was also excellent, or as excellent as it could be for a photograph taken just before the painting was tragically destroyed towards the end of the War. Dorian's heart ached for such lost beauty. He closed his eyes, head filling with Mozart's _Apollo et Hyacinthus_ intermezzo. What could be more romantic than holding one's lover's exquisitely beautiful, dead body?

Dorian came back to earth with a thud. These days, he did have a beautiful, and mostly dead, body in his bed. No amount of schooling seemed to make a dent in Klaus's stolid approach to the arts of the flesh. Now Dorian knew what a machine felt, on being dismantled. Trying to take his mind off its frustration, Dorian recreated _The Death of Hyacinthos_ in his mind. The original pigments alive with colours no copy can render; the feel of the varnished surface, fingers caressing it ever so lightly; the faint smell of late Renaissance oils; the smooth brushwork, no more shading than strictly necessary—Krücke had been so deliciously _demodé_ amongst his corruscating contemporaries, obstinately flat… _Oh bugger, not again_! Couldn't he spend more than five minutes before his traitorous brain presented him with the obstinately flat problem currently taking space in Dorian's bed? 

There was a barely-audible noise. Dorian took a deep breath, caught in the whiplash of thoughts. First, the frustration of sex with Klaus prompting him to find refuge in the library—then again, the excitement caused by visions of Apollo and Hyacinth's embrace—and now, cold reality again.

"Close that door, will you? The draft is making this old pile of bricks even more freezing." He snapped.

Klaus took a seat opposite Dorian. "Are you unwell? You sound…"

_Exasperated? Peeved? Fed up? All of the above?_ "I sound the way I sound, darling. What should I sound like?"

In the dull light Klaus's eyes looked flat; his stiff pose out of place in the soft armchair; his deep voice lost to the echoes in the vaulted room.

"You don't like it here."

_Quite! How did you guess?_ "What choice do I have? You are too paranoid to come to my place."

In the lengthening silence, Dorian kept his gaze riveted on the movement of Klaus's Adam's apple. 

Klaus stood up and turned his back. "I—ehm—I know this is not what you prefer. I—"

Dorian crossed his legs, and gave a half-yawn, half-moan. The book in his lap was deliciously heavy against his groin. He pushed it down, just a little—there—

"I am not good at this, Dorian—"

_Tell me something I don't know!_ "Good at what?"

"Tonight. What I gave you—"

_Insignificant, plain trinket. 16k gold. Boring._ "You mean that pretty bauble?"

"It was my grandmother's wedding ring." 

Dorian closed his eyes and passed a hand over his face. _Oh God, how tiresome! Proposing! This is just_ too _much._ _What am I doing here? Enough is enough._

"Klaus? Could we talk about this some other time? I am catching my death here—it's too cold to even think."

Klaus turned towards Dorian again—little more than a silhouette in the dark. "We could go back to bed."

_I'm already freezing, thank you. No need to make it worse._ "Yes, darling. Why don't you go ahead? I think I'll take a shower first." _And my clothes. And a fast, hard drive home. And this book. And the_ Man in Purple _too, come to think of that. Not going to be back if I can help it._

Moving stiffly, slowly, Klaus crossed to the door. Just before leaving, he turned. "Dorian?"

There was no reply. Klaus stared at Dorian's unmoving, unmoved profile. Then, silence unbroken, he left.

**Author's Note:**

> This story owes its existence to a prompt by Kadorienne, back in 2010. The prompt was 'Dorian doesn't find Klaus attractive, while Klaus finds Dorian attractive.' My brain whirred for about ten years, and then asked: what if Klaus had caved in too soon in the manga, before Dorian became softer and had the time to fall in love with him? Be careful what you wish for, Dorian.
> 
> Nerdy stuff: the name of the fictional author of _The Man in Purple_ is derived from that of the French artist Jean Broc, who painted _The Death of Hyacinthos_. I am not sure whether Dorian would like Broc’s style, not to mention that the work dates from about two centuries after Tyrian Persimmon's times; but the canvas has a fitting cartoon-like quality. I suggest you google it if you want to know why I chose it. As for the music, Dorian is thinking of Mozart's Latin intermezzo, _Apollo et Hyacinthus (K38)_. In this work, Apollo is a countertenor part: in my story [Postcards from Paris](http://archiveofourown.org/works/42286) I gave Dorian a love of countertenors, and I wanted to be consistent.


End file.
